The Ifa Orisha College

First, let us understand exactly what Orisa are. Orisa are pure, potent, energy matrixes, each expressing a specific focus or potential experience. Each contains both male and female aspects of that energy. What the Orisa are not, are human like entities endowed with human behavior or goals. The stories, or pataki, that have become the staple of Orisa understanding were never made to be interpreted literally. Yet, like almost everything else in Western culture, the "sizzle" replaced the steak. The problem is not simply a semantic one, it is a critically significant issue that has to do with your ability to get your life on track and fulfill your chosen destiny. This can only be accomplished by absolute connections with the potent energy the Orisa represent. It cannot be accomplished by trying to relate to what amount to Disney characters! When one examines the tales that were constructed to explain this energy, you see the essence quite clearly. When one examines the tales in a literal fashion, one gets lost in a morass of anthropomorphic confusion. As humans sought to explain the divine energy that they had learned to work with, they did so with Human like examples. When we take the anthropomorphic (giving human attributes to something not human) view, we immediately make the energy less that it truly is…in our attempt to understand divine energy in human terms, we humanize the energy. In so doing we diminish its power…and our ability to truly utilize it. There is another important aspect to understanding Orisa energy. That has to do with differentiating between the essence of the energy itself, and the expression of that energy in our lives. The essence is pure. The expression is our individual use and integration with that essence in our daily lives. The essence will remain pure. The expression of it will be ever changing!

Why, how and when to utilize orisa energy for healing, cleansing, shedding, abuse & conception.

Ifa's worldview can be thought of as the spiritual representation of Einstein's theory of relativity. our belief in, and practices of, ancestor worship bridges the time gap that Einstein believed must exist between the past, present, and future. In Ifa, we understand that the invisible world of our deceased ancestors combines with the visible world of nature and human culture to form a single organic truth. Through ritual we bridge the relationship between the past and the present and in the process improve the future. The ritual process of ancestor worship can provide us with profound, quantifiable changes in our everyday lives. But the concept often meets with resistance.

The unique power, place and empowerment of women in Ifa

Negative energy - why it exists and how to deal with it